It's funny to have a postdoc mentor who thinks himself knows everything in biology
. Whenever I tell him about my new ideas, the first response he gives is
always: "no, that's not going to work". That makes me feel like I am such a
fool who makes fundamental mistakes. However, when I try to work on my new
ideas, some of them work beautifully. When I show him the working result, he
likes saying: well, I would like you to prove me wrong. I was speechless
and laughed my head off silently.

He may think he is a god who knows everything, but he is apparently not that
authoritative. I simply don't understand why he cannot lower himself by
showing some humbleness, I guess that may result from his inferiority
feeling, and he always wants to feel superior by negating any new ideas or
suggestion regardless of their correctness or values.

Postdoc 1 on Jun 11 2010, 04:36 PM said:

Hi Postdoc 1,

Welcome to the forums .....perhaps you shld post this in the V & C (venting and counselling) subforum where you'd get more serious responses? Anyhow, my two cents....you will always meet people like him so it's a good testing ground for you. We usually cannot change people (some are really just plain jerks and others have their own reasons for behaving like one) but perhaps what's more important is how you'd react to all his arrogance and callousness.

It should motivate you to try even harder, to do better and yup, to prove him wrong. Don't allow him to stifle your initiative and drive....you are prepared to be a post-doc so yes, you can be a good one. We used to have a member here who said that science is a kind of mental sports and perhaps he's right. You're probably a beginner post-doc and he's your mentor but in no time you'd have learned what you need to and will be on your own so that's a goal that you have to try to achieve in the shortest possible time...meanwhile, just be patient and don't allow him to get the better of you or at least don't give him the satisfaction......and if you want more R and R (rant and rave) just give us a holler.....

casandra